Hong Kong - Disney's plans to expand its Hong Kong Disneyland park include the construction of three new themed areas, including one with rides based on the animated Toy Story films, a newspaper reported Friday. Work on the four-year, 3.63-billion-Hong Kong-dollar (465.4-million-US-dollar) expansion was set to start in December once detailed approval to the plans has been given by the Hong Kong government, the South China Morning Post said.
Several recently sacked Disney designers, or "imagineers" in Disney parlance, have been rehired and more than 30 designers are likely to be recruited to work on the expansion, according to information given at a government meeting.
The three new areas - the two others are called Grizzly Trail and Mystic Point - are to increase the size of the park by 23 per cent and the number of its attractions by 30 after the attraction on Lantau Island has been criticized for being too small and its ticket prices too high.
More than 3,000 jobs are to be created during construction with around 600 permanent jobs added when the new attractions open.
The theme park has been dogged by controversy since its launch in September 2005. Many complaints were directed at Hong Kong's government for shouldering most of the cost of building the park while it has also failed to meet its attendance targets.
Hong Kong Disneyland is jointly owned by the Hong Kong government and the Walt Disney Co. Although taxpayers contributed about 23 billion Hong Kong dollars of the 27 billion Hong Kong dollars in development costs, the government acquired a 57-per-cent stake. Disney invested 2.45 billion Hong Kong dollars for a 43-per-cent share.
The Walt Disney Co is shouldering the cost of the expansion in return for the government reducing its stake to 52 per cent.
Hong Kong lawmakers approved the expansion in July amid worries that a new, bigger Disney theme park planned in Shanghai would draw away visitors from Hong Kong Disneyland.
